When he inspected the uncultivated land, Batiste told himself that here
he would have work for some time.
Nor did he feel dismayed over the prospect. He was an energetic,
enterprising man, accustomed to working hard to earn a livelihood, and
there was hard work here, and plenty of it, furthermore, he consoled
himself by remembering that he had been even worse off.
His life had been a continuous change of profession, always within the
circle of rural poverty; but though he had changed his occupation every
year, he had never succeeded in obtaining for his family the modest
comfort which was his only aspiration.
When he first became acquainted with his wife, he was a millhand in the
neighbourhood of Sagunto. He was then working like a dog (as he
expressed it) to provide for his family; and the Lord rewarded his
labours by sending him every year a child, all sons,--beautiful
creatures who seemed to have been born with teeth, judging by the haste
with which they deserted the mother's breast, and began to beg
continually for bread.
The result was that in his search for higher wages, he had to give up
the mill and become a teamster.
But bad luck pursued him. And yet no one tended the live stock and
watched the road as well as he: though nearly dead from fatigue, he had
never like his companions dared to sleep in the wagon, letting the
beasts, guided by their instinct, find their own way: wakeful at all
hours, he always walked beside the nag ahead to avoid the holes and the
bad places. Nevertheless, if a wagon upset, it was always his; if an
animal fell ill of the rains, it was of course one of Batiste's, in
spite of the paternal care with which he hastened to cover the flanks of
the horses with trappings of sackcloth, as soon as a few drops had
fallen.
During some years of tiresome wanderings over highroads of the province,
eating poorly, sleeping in the open, and suffering the torment of
passing entire months away from his family, whom he adored with the
concentrated affection of a rough and silent man, Batiste experienced
only losses, and saw his position getting worse and worse.
His nags died, and he had to go into debt to buy others; the profit that
he should have had from the continuous carrying of bags of skin bulged
out with wine or oil, would disappear in the hands of hucksters and
owners of carts, until the moment arrived when, seeing his impending
ruin, he gave up the occupation.
Then he took some land near Sagunto; arid fields, red and eternally
thirsty, in which the century-old carob-trees writhed their hollow
trunks, and the olive-trees raised their round and dusty heads.
His life was one continuous battle with the drought, an incessant gazing
at the sky; whenever a small dark cloud showed itself on the horizon, he
trembled with fear.
It rained but little, the crops were bad for four consecutive years, and
at last Batiste did not know what to do nor where to turn. Then, in a
trip to Valencia, he made the acquaintance of the sons of Don Salvador,
excellent gentlemen (the Lord bless them), who offered to let him use
these beautiful fields rent-free for two years, until they could be
brought back completely to their old condition.
He had heard rumours of what had happened at the farm-house; of the
causes which had compelled the owner to keep these beautiful lands
unproductive; but such a long time had elapsed! Furthermore, poverty has
no ears; the fields suited him, and in them he would remain. What did he
care for the story of don Salvador and old Barret?
All of which was scorned and forgotten as he looked over the land. And
Batiste felt himself filled with sweet ecstasy at finding himself the
cultivator of the fertile _huerta_, which he had envied so many times as
he passed along the high-road of Valencia to Sagunto.
This was fine land; always green; of inexhaustible fertility, producing
one harvest after another; the red water circulating at all hours like
life-giving blood through the innumerable canals and irrigation trenches
which furrowed its surface like a complicated network of veins and
arteries; so fertile that entire families were supported by patches so
small that they looked like green handkerchiefs. The dry fields off
there near Sagunto reminded him of an inferno of drought, from which he
fortunately had liberated himself.
Now he was sure that he was on the right road. To work! The fields were
ruined; there was much work to be done; but when one is so willing! And
this big, robust, muscular fellow, with the shoulders of a giant,
closely cropped round head, and good-natured countenance supported by
the heavy neck of a monk, extended his powerful arms, accustomed to
raising sacks of flour and the heavy skin sacks of the teamster's trade,
aloft in the air, and stretched himself.
He was so absorbed in his lands that he scarcely noticed the curiosity
of his neighbours.
Restless heads appeared between the cane-brake; men, stretched out at
full-length on the sloping banks, were watching him; even the women and
the children of the adjoining _huertas_ followed his movements.
Batiste did not mind them. It was curiosity, the hostile expectation
which recent arrivals always inspire. Well did he know what that was;
they would get accustomed to it. Furthermore, perhaps they were
interested in seeing how that desolate growth burned, which ten years of
abandonment had heaped upon the fields of Barret.
And aided by his wife and children, he went about on the day after his
arrival, burning up all the parasitic vegetation.
The shrubs writhed in the flames; they fell like live coals from whose
ashes the loathsome vermin escaped all singed, and the farm-house seemed
lost amid the clouds of smoke from these fires, which awakened silent
anger in all the _huerta_.
The fields once cleared, Batiste without losing time proceeded to
cultivate them. They were somewhat hard; but like an expert farmer, he
planned to work them little by little, in sections, and marking out a
plot near his farm-house, he began to break up the earth, aided by all
his family.
The neighbours made sport of them with an irony which betrayed their
irritation. A pretty family! They were gipsies, like those who sleep
under the bridges. They lived in that old farm-house like shipwrecked
sailors who are holding out in a ruined boat; plugging a hole here,
shoring there, doing real wonders to sustain the straw roof, and
distributing their poor furniture, carefully polished, in all the rooms
which had been before the burrowing place of rats and vermin.
In their industry, they were like a nest of squirrels, unable to keep
idle while the father was working. Teresa, the wife, and Roseta, the
eldest daughter, with their skirts tucked in between their legs, and hoe
in hand, dug with more zeal than day-labourers, resting only to throw
back the locks of hair which kept straggling over their red, perspiring
foreheads. The eldest son made continuous trips to Valencia with the
rush-basket on his shoulder, carrying manure and rubbish which he piled
up in two heaps like columns of honour at the entrance to the
farm-house; and the three little tots, grave and laborious, as if they
understood the situation of the family, went down on all fours behind
the diggers, tearing up the hard roots of the burned shrubs from the
earth.
This preparatory work lasted more than a week, the family sweating and
panting from dawn till night.
Half of the land having been broken up, Batiste fenced in the plot and
tilled it with the aid of the willing nag, which was like one of the
family.
He had only to proceed to cultivate. They were then in Saint Martin's
summer, the time of sowing, and the labourer divided the broken-up
earth into three parts. The greater part was for wheat, a smaller patch
for beans, and another part for fodder, for it would not do to forget
Morrut, the dear old horse: well had he earned it.
And with the joy of those who discover a port after a hard voyage, the
family proceeded to the sowing. The future was assured. The fields of
the _huerta_ never failed; here bread for all the year would be
forthcoming.
On the afternoon which completed the sowing, they saw coming over the
adjoining road some sheep with dirty wool, which stopped timidly at the
end of the field.
Behind them walked an old man, like dried up parchment, yellowish, with
deep sunken eyes and a mouth surrounded by a circle of wrinkles. He was
walking with firm steps, but with his shepherd's crook ahead of him, as
though feeling his way along the road.
The family looked at him with attention; he was the only person who had
ventured to approach the land within the two weeks they were here. On
noticing the hesitation of the sheep, he shouted to them to go on.
Batiste went out to meet the old man; he could not pass through; the
fields were now under cultivation. Did he not know?
Old Tomba had heard something, but during the two preceding weeks, he
had taken out his flock to graze upon the rank grass in the ravine of
Carraixet, without concerning himself about the fields. So indeed they
now were cultivated?
And the old shepherd raised his head, and with his almost sightless eyes
made an effort to see the bold man who dared to do that which was held
to be impossible in all the _huerta_.
He was silent for a long while. Then at last he began to mutter sadly:
Too bad. He had also been daring in his youth; he had liked to go
counter to everything. But when the enemies are so many! Very bad! He
had put himself into an awkward position. These lands, since the time of
old Barret, had been accursed. He could take his, Tomba's, word for it;
he was old and experienced; they would bring him misfortune.
And the shepherd called his flock and made them start out again along
the road, but before departing, he threw back his cloak, raised his
emaciated arms, and with a certain intonation characteristic of a seer
who forecasts the future, or of a prophet who scents disaster, he cried
to Batiste:
"Believe me, my son, they will bring you misfortune!"
This encounter gave the _huerta_ another cause for anger.
Old Tomba could not bring his sheep back into those lands, after
enjoying the peaceful use of their fodder for ten years!
Not a word was said as to the legitimacy of the refusal, inasmuch as the
land was now under cultivation; they spoke only of the respect which the
old shepherd deserved, a man who in his youth had "eaten up" the French
alive, who had seen much of the world, and whose wisdom, demonstrated by
half-spoken words and incoherent advice, inspired a superstitious
respect among the people of the _huerta_.
After Batiste and his family saw the bosom of the earth well-filled with
fertile seed, they began, for lack of work more pressing, to think of
the house. The fields would do their duty; now the time had arrived to
think about themselves.
And for the first time since his coming to the _huerta_, Batiste left
his land for Valencia to load into his cart all the rubbish of the city
which might be useful to him.
This man was like a lucky ant. The mounds started by Batiste increased
considerably with the expeditions of the father. The heap of manure
which formed a defensive screen before the farm-house, grew rapidly, and
beyond, there was piling up a mound of hundreds of broken bricks,
worm-eaten wood, broken-down doors, windows reduced to splinters, all
the refuse of the demolished buildings of the city.
The people of the _huerta_ looked with astonishment at the dispatch and
clever skill of these laborious ants as they worked to prepare their
home.
The straw roof of the house stood erect again; some of the rafters of
the roof, corroded by the rains, were reinforced, others substituted. A
new layer of straw now covered the two hanging planes of the exterior;
even the little crosses at the ends were supplanted by others which
Batiste had daintily made with his clasp knife, decorating their corners
with notched grooves: and in all the neighbourhood, there was not a roof
which rose more trimly.
The neighbours, on noticing how Barret's house was improved when the
roof was placed erect, saw in it something to mock and to challenge.
Then the work below was started. What ways and means of utilizing the
rubbish of Valencia! The chinks disappeared, and the plastering of the
walls being finished, the wife and daughters white-washed them a
dazzling white. The door, new and painted blue, seemed to be the mother
of all the little windows, which showed their four square faces of the
same colour through the openings of the walls; under the vine-arbour,
Batiste made a little enclosure paved with red bricks, so the women
might sew there during the afternoon. The well, after a week of descents
and laborious carryings, was cleared of all the rocks and the refuse
with which the rascals of the _huerta_ had filled it for the last ten
years, and its water, fresh and clear, began to rise once more in the
mossy bucket, with joyful creakings of the pulley, which seemed to laugh
at the district with the strident peals of laughter of a malicious old
woman.
The neighbours chocked down their fury in silence. Thief! More than
thief! A fine way to work! This man, in his robust arms, seemed to
possess two magic wands that transformed all that he touched!
Two months had passed since his arrival, yet he had not left his land a
half-dozen times; he was always there, his head between his shoulders,
intoxicated with work. And the house of Barret began to present a
smiling and coquettish aspect, such as it had never possessed in the
days of its former master.
The corral, previously enclosed with rotting cane-brake, now had sides
of pickets and clay painted white, along whose edges strutted the ruddy
hens, and the cock, excited, shook his red comb. In the little square in
front of the house, beds of morning-glories and climbing plants
blossomed; a row of chipped jars painted blue served as flower-pots on
the bench of red bricks; and through the half-open door, oh vain fellow!
the new pitcher-shelf might be seen, with its enamelled tiling, and its
glazed green pitchers, casting insolent reflections which blinded the
eyes of the passerby who went along the adjoining road.
All the _huerta_ with increasing fury ran to Pimentó. "Could it possibly
be permitted? What did the terrible husband of Pepeta think of doing?"
And Pimentó, scratching his forehead, listened to them with a certain
confusion.
What was he going to do? He would say just two little words to this
stranger who had set himself to cultivate that which was not his; he
would give him a hint, a very serious hint, not to be a fool, but to let
the land go, as he had no business there. But that accursed man would
not come forth from his fields, and it would never do to go to him and
threaten him in his own house. It would mean the giving of a foundation
for that which must follow. He had to be cautious and watch till he came
out. In short, a little patience. He was able to assure them that the
man in question would not reap the wheat, nor gather the beans, nor
anything which had been planted in the fields of Barret. That should be
for the devil.
Pimentó's words calmed the neighbours, who followed the progress of the
accursed family with attentive glances, wishing silently that the hour
of their ruin would soon arrive.
One afternoon, Batiste returned from Valencia very well pleased with the
result of his trip. He wanted no idle hands in his house. Batiste, when
the work in the field did not take his time, was occupied in going to
the city for manure. The little girl, a willing youngster, who once they
were settled was of small use at home, had, thanks to the patronage of
the sons of Don Salvador, who seemed very well satisfied with his new
tenant, just succeeded in getting taken into a silk factory.
On the following day, Roseta would be one of the string of girls who,
awakening with the dawn, marched with waving skirts and their little
baskets on their arm, over all the paths, on their way to the city to
spin the silky cocoon with the thick fingers of the daughters of the
_huerta_.
When Batiste arrived near the tavern of Copa, a man appeared in the
road, emerging from an adjoining path, and walked slowly toward him,
giving him to understand that he desired to speak to him.
Batiste stopped, regretting inwardly that he did not have with him so
much as a clasp knife or a hoe; but calm and quiet, he raised his round
head with the imperious expression so much feared by his family and
crossed his muscular arms, the arms of a former millhand, on his
breast.
He knew this man, although he had never spoken with him; it was Pimentó.
The meeting which he had dreaded so much finally occurred.
The bully measured this odious intruder with a glance, and spoke to him
in a bland voice, striving to give an accent of good-natured counsel to
his ferocity and evil intention.
He wished to say to him just two words: he had been wanting to do so for
some time, but how? did he never come forth from his land?
Two little words, no more.
And he gave him the couple of words, counselling him to leave the lands
of old Barret as soon as possible. He should believe the people who
wished him well, those who knew the _huerta_. His presence there was an
offence, and the farm-house, which was almost new, was an insult to the
poor people. He ought to believe him, and with his family go away to
other parts.
Batiste smiled ironically on hearing Pimentó, who seemed confused by the
serenity of the intruder, humbled by meeting a man who did not seem
afraid of him.
Go away? There was not a bully in all the _huerta_ who could make him
abandon that which was now his; that which was watered by his sweat;
moreover he had to earn bread for his family. He was a peaceful man,
understand! but if they trifled with him, he had just as much manly
spirit as most. Let every one attend to his own business, for he thought
that he would do enough if he attended to his own, and failed nobody.
And scornfully turning his back upon the Valencian, he went his way.
Pimentó, accustomed to making all the _huerta_ tremble, was more and
more disconcerted by the serenity of Batiste.
"Is that your last word?" he shouted to him when he was already at some
distance.
"Yes, the last," answered Batiste without turning.
And he went ahead, disappearing in a curve of the road. At some
distance, on the old farm of Barret, the dog was barking, scenting the
approach of his master.
On finding himself alone, Pimentó again recovered his arrogance.
_Cristo!_ How this old fellow had mocked him! He muttered some curses,
and clenching his fist, shook it threateningly at the bend in the road
where Batiste had disappeared.
"You shall pay for this,--you shall pay for this, you thug!"
In his tone which trembled with madness, there vibrated all the
condensed hatred of the _huerta_.